


Doctor's Care

by ami_ven



Series: Alternate Lives [1]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Historical, Community: mcsheplets, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-26
Updated: 2015-10-26
Packaged: 2018-04-28 05:08:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5079052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ami_ven/pseuds/ami_ven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rodney’s new patient is someone from Johanna’s past.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Doctor's Care

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Compatibility of Souls](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2467943) by [ami_ven](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ami_ven/pseuds/ami_ven). 



> written for LJ community "mcsheplets" prompt #213 "encounter"

**Philadelphia, PA  
1780 AD**

Johanna sat back on her heels, taking a break from replacing roof tiles to enjoy the feel of the sun on her face. She could still hear her mother’s voice in the back of her mind, chiding her to wear her hat so that her nose wouldn’t freckle, but she knew it would be banished the moment she went back into the house and Rodney kissed every last bit of sun-darkened skin.

Actually, she was sure that her mother would object to most of this situation— Johanna was wearing an old pair of Rodney’s breeches, her hair windblown and loosely braided down her back, sitting barefoot on the roof of their house where anyone might see her. 

And there came someone now— a farm cart was coming down the long road toward the house, traveling very fast, so that it took Johanna a moment to recognize the driver as their neighbor, Evan Lorne. He brought his horse to a stop as she slid from the roof to the branches of the tall oak tree beside the house, landing in the dirt and rolling to her feet.

“Mr. Lorne?” she asked.

He looked startled at her appearance for only a moment. “It’s a patient for the doctor, Mrs. McKay,” he said, and now Johanna could see that the bundle in the back of his cart was a man, broken and bloody underneath the rough blanket.

“Get him inside,” Johanna told him. “Ronon—”

The other man appeared silently, like he always did. “I’m here.”

Lorne jumped, but Johanna had trained herself not to, shortly after they’d hired Ronon. “Get him inside,” she repeated. “I’ll get Rodney.”

Her husband was in his laboratory, bent over his microscopes, as usual, and he was indignant at being interrupted until he learned that he had a patient. “Why didn’t you just tell me that, Sheppard?” Rodney demanded, and she ignored him in favor of helping him prepare for surgery.

It took them hours to get the man stable— he’d clearly been attacked, bruises stark on pale skin and several bones broken. But Rodney was the best there was, and by the time the sun was sinking into the horizon, their patient was put back together, breathing slow but as steady as Ronon’s where he slept in a chair beside the door, waiting to be needed.

Rodney collapsed into the chair opposite him, still scrubbing blood from his hands, as Johanna set to cleaning up their patient a bit more. They had cut away his jacket and shirt from the worst of the man’s injuries, and she started cleaning the smaller cuts that had already begun to heal on their own. A shallow cut above the man’s eye had bloodied his face, and she ran a cloth carefully over his skin— then fell back, startled.

“Sheppard,” said Rodney, instantly alert again. “Johanna, what’s wrong?”

She let him hold her, needing to feel his arms around her. “It’s my father.”

“What— him?” Rodney asked. “He— what happened?”

“How should I know?” said Johanna. “Lorne said he found him on the road, and I haven’t seen him since… since I ran off to join the Continental Army.”

Rodney looked at her for a long moment, his grip tightening unconsciously. “He doesn’t have to stay here,” he said. “He won’t wake for some time, I’ll have Ronon get the cart and take him to Lorne’s and you’ll never have to—”

Johanna interrupted him with a long, deep kiss. “No,” she said, when they broke for air. “No, I think I’m ready to face him, now. I’m not his anymore, Rodney. I’m yours.”

He kissed her, gently. “No, you’re not. You’re a force of nature, and I’m just lucky enough you choose to stay with me.”

“If you two’re gonna keep kissin’, I’m goin’ back to my room,” muttered Ronon, with his eyes still closed.

It took another day for Johanna’s father to wake up and she was there when he did, with a restraining hand to his shoulder. 

He blinked, disbelieving. “Johanna?”

“Don’t move, Father,” she said.

“What happened?” he asked. “Where am I?”

“You were badly injured,” Johanna told him. “You’re at the home of Dr. M. Rodney McKay, the physician who treated you.”

She fetched a glass of water and helped him drink, carefully.

Her father frowned. “So, you left my home and a potential marriage of privilege to work for a country doctor?”

Johanna scowled. “Rodney is the best doctor on this continent,” she said. “He saved your life _and_ mine, so you should be—”

“You didn’t tell me my patient was awake,” accused Rodney, barreling in with his usual lack of grace. “Well, he seems alive, at any rate. You did keep him still, didn’t you, Sheppard? What about brain damage?”

“He appears to be his normal, charming self,” Johanna drawled. “Allow me to make the introductions— Rodney, I’ve spoken to you of my father, Patrick Sheppard, of the New England Sheppards. Father, this is Dr. McKay, my husband.”

“Husband?” her father repeated. “I never gave my permission!”

“Nor did I ask it,” Rodney said, smoothly. “Johanna makes her own choices, and I am lucky enough to have been one of them.”

“I’m happy, Father,” said Johanna. “If you won’t accept the way things are, I will arrange for someone from your household to retrieve you, and you will never see me again.”

The older man took a deep breath. “I…” he began, then he paused, looking at her hard. “Perhaps we should talk.”

“Good,” she replied, smoothing a hand over the stomacher of her gown. “A child should know its grandfather.”

“Grandfather?” he spluttered, just as Rodney cried, “Child!?”

Johanna smiled. “Surprise.”

THE END

 **Who’s Who**  
 **Rodney McKay** as a medical doctor  
 **John Sheppard** as Johanna (Sheppard) McKay, his wife  
 **Ronon Dex** as a hired hand  
 **Evan Lorne** as a farmer, their neighbor


End file.
